Gargoyles

Fears, regrets, lost hopes,
failures and smashed dreams
can chase you, chase you
in the shadows until
they catch you like a disease.
Building insidious inner demons,
they try to overwhelm you,
put blinders on your eyes,
tell you that you have
no freedom of choice,
tell you that all the world
is forsaken and made of pain.
Each time they win a battle,
they get a little stronger
If they win too many times,
they’ll bind you with fear
and suffocate you with ignorance
trying to snuff your life spark out.

Each time you rise
to meet a new day,
you win the prize
of one more chance at life.
As you face the day,
with every choice you make
to believe in yourself
in spite of them, you win.
Each time you embrace them
teaching them of compassion
you win against them.
Each time you stand up to them
all or alone in the darker
alleys of your mind,
you win a battle with them.

If you win enough battles
by believing in your own magic
they’ll transform
into peculiar allies—
You’ll learn from them
to have even greater
empathy and compassion.
They’ll become gargoyles
who protect you
with an amour of scars
that they’ve created,
guarding you against
any new strife you chance to face
in the long years ahead.

I’ve fought many of them
many times over the years
and I have many scars
because of it.
But my gargoyles have learned
respect for my spirit,
because I know in each place
they pierced me in times past,
in the white of my scars
shines the light of the sun,
and moon, and stars.